Boston Schools top the country’s priciest dorms

According to Kim Clark at US News & World Report, the rising cost of real estate and student demand for hotel-style goodies such as private bathrooms and suites have pushed the cost of dorms up crazily at many college campuses.

At colleges in high-cost areas, even standard shared double dorm rooms now cost more than $1,000 a month. Add in dining expenses, and living on campus at some colleges in New York, Boston, and northern California can cost about $1,700 a month—and that’s not even counting tuition or books. Now it looks as though purchasing real estate close to campus will pay for itself in the 4 years that students attend college.

The colleges with the priciest dorms generally explain that their costs are high because their dorms are new and offer lots of extras: free Wi-Fi, fitness centers, and “living learning” opportunities to study with professors, for instance. In addition, many colleges require their dorms to turn a profit, which is then funneled to support other college needs such as financial aid.

Here are colleges with some of the priciest dorms in the country. The dorm cost is the average cost of a standard shared double dorm room. Board cost is the standard full meal plan at a cafeteria. Most colleges offer students options to reduce these costs even further by, for example, buying fewer meals or agreeing to share a room with a third student.